The Wheeler Institute for Business and Development at London Business School invites you to a unique and timely conversation with three of the world’s most influential thinkers on markets and democracy: Sir Oliver Hart, Nobel Laureate and Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor of Economics at Harvard University; Hélène Landemore, Professor of Political Science at Yale University and leading authority on democratic innovation; and Luigi Zingales, Robert C. McCormack Distinguished Service Professor at Chicago Booth and Director of the Stigler Center.
Moderated by Professor Sergei Guriev, Professor of Economics and Dean of London Business School, the discussion will introduce a bold proposal to democratise corporate governance by empowering mutual fund investors through shareholder assemblies, an idea inspired by the citizens’ assemblies reshaping democratic participation around the world.
At a moment when corporations increasingly determine outcomes on climate, inequality, and geopolitical stability, these questions are urgent and universal: Who gets to decide the future of capitalism? And how can investors influence the choices that shape our shared future?
This rare public gathering brings together world leading voices from economics, finance and political theory to debate one of the most ambitious proposals for corporate governance reform in decades — and what it could mean for accountability, investment stewardship and society.
Join us for an evening of cutting-edge ideas, bold proposals and live audience engagement with the thinkers reshaping the future of investor power:
- Friday 16 January 2026, 17:30–18:45
- Sammy Ofer Centre, London Business School
- Live streamed on Zoom
- Registration required (Eventbrite for in-person, Zoom for online)
The public event is part of the Rethinking Capitalism series, a flagship Wheeler Institute event series convening global thinkers to challenge and reimagine the future of capitalism.
speakers
Sir Oliver Hart is the Lewis P. & Linda L. Geyser University Professor of Economics at Harvard University and co-recipient of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his pioneering work on contract theory and the boundary of the firm. He holds numerous honorary degrees, is a Fellow of the Econometric Society, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the British Academy and the National Academy of Sciences. He has held major leadership positions in economics departments, chaired key committees in governance and law & economics. Sir Oliver Hart is one of the most influential economists of his generation, shaping how scholars and practitioners understand contracts, ownership, and firm structure globally.
Hélène Landemore is Professor of Political Science at Yale University and a leading authority on democratic innovation, having developed work on citizens’ assemblies, deliberative democracy, and inclusive institutional design and influenced governments, institutions, and civic organisations worldwide. Her books include Open Democracy: Reinventing Popular Rule for the Twenty‑First Century and Democratic Reason: Politics, Collective Intelligence and the Rule of the Many. She is a Faculty Fellow at Yale’s Institute for Social and Policy Studies, and a Distinguished Research Fellow at Oxford University’s Institute for Ethics in AI. Professor Landemore is internationally regarded as a leading voice on democracy, constitutional reform, and the ethical and political implications of artificial intelligence.
Luigi Zingales is the Robert C. McCormack Distinguished Service Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance and Director of the Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business
He is one of the most influential voices in corporate governance, financial markets and the political economy of capitalism. He served as President of the American Finance Association in 2014, is a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a Research Fellow at the Center for Economic Policy Research and a fellow of the European Corporate Governance Institute. He also co‑hosts the podcast Capitalisn’t and is the author of the best-selling books Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists and A Capitalism for the People. Professor Zingales is widely recognised for shaping public debate on the interplay between markets, institutions and regulation, and is one of the most cited scholars in finance and political economy globally.
moderator
Sergei Guriev is Professor of Economics and Dean of London Business School. Prior to joining LBS, he was a tenured professor of economics at Sciences Po in Paris and served as its first Provost. Previously, he served as the Chief Economist of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research, a Senior Member of the Institut Universitaire de France, an Ordinary Member of Academia Europaea, an Honorary Foreign Member of the American Economic Association and a member of the Group of Thirty. Professor Guriev’s work spans political economy, development economics, and institutional reform, and he has served as an advisor to governments and international organisations. You can watch here and here previous Wheeler Institute events with Sergei Guriev.